Rose Garden
by TheMacUnleashed
Summary: One-shots focusing on Rose between the events of Doomsday and A Journey's End. Many different genres. Rose/10 implied.
1. Lucky

**These stories focus around Rose after the season two finale, Doomsday, so if you haven't seen that (Although I suspect most have) then there's a spoiler warning. These will be between 250-1000 words. I will accept topics, although I might not use them until later on, as I have the first fifteen or so chapters planned out. Also, this isn't an original idea; I know that there are a lot of these collections out there. I'm also aware that the title is a very bad pun. Please bear with me. **

Chapter One: Lucky

Genre: Angst/ Drama/ Humor (I'm afraid that it kind of depends what mood you're in.)**

* * *

**Rose stared at him, her heart pounding. _Two years_. It had been two years since she had stood here on Bad Wolf Bay and spoken to him; longer still since she had been able to reach out and touch his pale skin.

Hadn't she dreamed of this day; the day when he would clasp her hand and together they would walk back to the TARDIS and be off to one of the eternal points in Time and Space?

And now she, Rose Tyler, she who had saved worlds, was to be thrown away; left behind forever with a flawed clone; an imperfect replica of the man she loved.

She wished that she had the heart to blame this on Donna. After all, if it weren't for her, she wouldn't be stuck here babysitting for a man who lacked a heart. No, she would be inside the blue police box, traveling the universe!

She-

She would be dead, like the rest of- of- well, everyone.

No, even if she could now understand how Sara-Jane had felt, this was not Donna's fault. Nobody could be blamed.

Rose knew that if she truly loved the Doctor (And she doubted that anyone standing here on the Bay would be willing to debate the point!) she would do whatever she could to make him happy. And anyway, thinking it over, the single-hearted Doctor must not be that different… Only two Doctors that existed, and she got to be in the company of one! She was, thinking it over, a very lucky person.

Which didn't mean that there'd be no test.

She stepped forward hesitantly. "Answer me this: When I last stood on this beach on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing that you said to me? Go on, say it!"

The real- no, the two-hearted one- replied, "I said, 'Rose Tyler…"

"Yeah? And how was that sentence going to end?"

His brown eyes were gentle. "It doesn't need saying."

She turned to the other one, _her_ Doctor. "And you… Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?"

He leaned in to her. She wondered if Time Lords- or, well, people with the _minds_ and same outside bodies anyhow- could cry; she was surprised he wasn't.  
His words were but a soft flutter in her ear. "I'm the real Doctor. Donna's not going to be around for much longer, so I sent her with the one-hearted one."

She stepped back, astonished at first, and then pulled him in for a kiss.

A lucky person, indeed.


	2. Tears

"And she will be missed by all those who knew her in her final year, especially her beloved grandson Ricky, son of the missing Jackson Smith and the deceased daughter of Rita-Anne, Mary-Sue Smith."

"Mickey." The second speaker wore all black. His head had been facing the ground, but he lifted it slowly. His teeth were gritted, the illusion of anger but a farce to hide his pain.

The short, grey-haired minister looked surprised. "Excuse me?"

"You said Ricky. My name is _Mickey._"

The clergyman looked as though he was about to protest, but a single look at the young man's face stopped him. "Um, yes; my apologies. _Mickey._"

A single tear slipped passed Rose's constantly blinking eyes, and a wave of guilt swept across her. The first –although, preferably the only- tear she shed should no doubt be for the loss of Rita-Anne, the woman who could have been her grandmother, as close as they were, but, well, it wasn't.

"_Hello, Ricky!"_ Oh, Heavens Above, not now. Realizing that fighting would be useless, the blonde girl allowed salt tracks to start forming on her cheeks. They –the others- would all assume that they were for the right reasons. 

Why did the sweet old dark skinned woman have to pass on so soon after Rose had "first" met her? It had only been four months…

Who would go next? Her mother, taking with her an unborn sibling? The father that she had yet to accept?

_Stop!_ Rose knew that such thoughts were wrong, but sometimes they had to come.

Looking up through the lacy black mourning veil that covered her eyes, she realized that the casket had been lowered into the damp earth, and that people were now starting to break up. As they left, most seemed to pass Mickey and touch him on the shoulder, offering brief, meaningless condolences.

She had had little time to speak to him since the day that they had all stood on Bad Wolf Bay. When they returned, nearly a month after her and her family –Mickey included- had set out, Rita-Anne had started to fade. She had been the woman taking up most of the young man's time, not Rose.

She supposed that she should offer something. Rose walked up to him hesitantly, and was startled when he flinched away from her light touch. "Mick? I- I know that it doesn't mean anything, but… I'm sorry for your loss." She hesitated, not quite sure how to continue. "Just… Just remember that time is an illusion. Somewhere, she's still alive. And…" she reached up and placed her hand onto his heart, knowing how clichéd her words sounded. "She lives on here."

Whatever she thought his reaction to her words might be, what happened wasn't it. He backed away from her, his normally gentle eyes now like two pieces of obsidian. "Time! It's all about _him_ isn't it? You were never crying for my Grandma, were you? Oh, no! Don't care about Ol' Mick! Just the Doctor!" He stormed off.

Rose stared at him. She knew that it was the grief speaking, but it didn't matter. He was right.

More tears smeared her eye-makeup down her cheeks.

The Doctor.

Her tears were his.

It always came down to him.

Always.


	3. K9

"What's the world coming to?"

Rose Tyler looked up at Pete as he walked through the door. "Um, I don't know?" She was fairly certain that it was a rhetorical question, but with Pete, it was hard to tell.

The rich man handed his coat to one of the maids that worked in his huge mansion. "Tell me Rose, does your "real" universe have robots yet?"

Her chest panged, as it always did with the mention of- of- there. "Well, yeah… I mean you don't see them nearly as often as you do here, and they'd probably be considered primitive by your standards, but they certainly exist."

"Oh? And what do they do?"

The blond-haired girl was confused. Although she and her stepfather were on reasonably good terms, his initial betrayal of her when they had first met still hurt. More importantly, he understood the pain she associated with the other universe and never brought it up in such casual conversation.

"Well, I'm not really sure. They just, I don't know, made life easier. You know, space exploration, and working in dangerous factories."

Pete gave a nod; like most popular icons, he rarely let his emotions show on his face. "And what about recreational purposes?"

Rose gave a slightly disbelieving laugh. "Recreational? Pete, do you know how much it cost just to make a single one of them? There'd be no profit if we did! And there would be no purpose to it. I doubt that anyone would want to have a bulky metal machine just hanging around the house!"

The middle-aged man sat down next to her on the couch with a sigh. "That's what I said."

Rose's jaw dropped slowly as he recounted the full tale.

She tried to console her step-dad, who was certain that his company was to lose millions of dollars. "Maybe someday it'll be used for more than a companion."

The next day, Rose was first in line to purchase a K-9 V1 robot. She didn't regret spending a single penny on it.

One day, these metal dogs currently mocked in society would make something of themselves.

**A/n: Please, please review! **


	4. Names

Names are strange things.

Rose Tyler- Rose, a noble-sounding name. But was it true? What defined a " noble" person? Bravery? She _might_ have that…

Rose, the symbol of love. No, _that_ wasn't accurate! But perhaps she did have more in common with the flower than she thought: As constant remarks as she walked down any given street reminded her, she was rather lovely.

But how deceiving looks could be, even more so than names! In a different time, a different _universe_, there was a man- at least him, perhaps others- that could testify to that.

Yes, she had thorns, that was for certain. Thorns were weapons, and many who had seen her fight would agree in a second that she _was_ a weapon, she with the things that were kept hidden in her mind, and, in this universe, _only_ her mind.

But her last name-Tyler- was different. Tyler had no other meaning than what it was- a name. And a fairly common name at that.

There were other ones, too: The most painful of all for her to think about being the most simple: The Doctor. A person who helps people get well, that was it. And a fitting name it would have been, if that was what it was.

No, that was not his true name, but a title. What the ones closest to him (Oh, how she wished it were her!) called him, she'd naught a clue. Perhaps she never would.

There was, of course, her mother: Jackie Tyler; with the same meaningless surname, but a fitting first one: Jackie, something that sounded just as spicy as the woman really was.

And of course, the most fitting of all, surpassing even the Doctor: Donna Noble.

_Yes_, Rose thought, that was a noble name indeed.


End file.
